Alan Cheusehttp://kuer.org
enBook Review: 'The Convert's Song' By Sebastian Rotellahttp://kuer.org/post/book-review-converts-song-sebastian-rotella
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+%27The+Convert%27s+Song%27+By+Sebastian+Rotella&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDExMDQwMzQzMDEzNjMyMTE3MjRkNzlmNg004)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>Sebastian Rotella's thrillers can seem very realistic. Maybe that has something to do with his day job. He's a reporter with ProPublica, and he's covered international security for years. Alan Cheuse says he couldn't put down Rotella's latest novel.Fri, 12 Dec 2014 21:26:00 +0000Alan Cheuse55744 at http://kuer.org'Lila' Sets The Stage For Marilynn Robinson's Earlier Workshttp://kuer.org/post/lila-sets-stage-marilynn-robinsons-earlier-works
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Lila%27+Sets+The+Stage+For+Marilynn+Robinson%27s+Earlier+Works&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA4NjIwNTkwMDEzMjI4NDY0MjY4ZTBlNA004)"/></div><p>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:24:00 +0000Alan Cheuse53427 at http://kuer.orgMartin Amis' 'Zone Of Interest' Is An Electrically Powerful Holocaust Novelhttp://kuer.org/post/martin-amis-zone-interest-electrically-powerful-holocaust-novel
When I picked up Martin Amis' new novel, <em>The </em><em>Zone of Interest,</em> it felt as though I had touched a third rail, so powerful and electric is the experience of reading it.Wed, 17 Sep 2014 22:40:00 +0000Alan Cheuse52186 at http://kuer.orgBook Review: 'Angels Make Their Hope Here'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-angels-make-their-hope-here
Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDRED. I'm Audie Cornish.<p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>And I'm Robert Siegel. Now to 19th-century New Jersey and a new novel. It set among unusually tolerant people. A racially mixed community that offers refuge to independent souls. Alan Cheuse has this review of the novel "Angels Make Their Hope Here" by Breena Clarke.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Clarke calls her Jersey Shangri-La, Russell’s Knob. Where a black community elder named Duncan Smoot heads a couple of families.Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:47:00 +0000Alan Cheuse49658 at http://kuer.orgMcMurtry Takes Aim At A Legend In 'Last Kind Words Saloon'http://kuer.org/post/mcmurtry-takes-aim-legend-last-kind-words-saloon
In a prefatory note to <em>The Last Kind Words Saloon</em>, his first novel in five years, Western writer supreme Larry McMurtry states that he wants to create a "ballad in prose." And he borrows a line from great moviemaker John Ford: "When legend becomes fact, print the legend."<p>Set in the autumn of the 19th century, mainly in Texas, Colorado, and Arizona, McMurtry's slender book contains a multitude of familiar and unfamiliar Western characters, including some who do belong to legend as well as history: part-time lawman Wyatt Earp and gun-toting dentist Doc Holliday, back together again.Tue, 27 May 2014 21:05:00 +0000Alan Cheuse46936 at http://kuer.orgWritten In Secret Behind The Iron Curtain, 'Corpse' Is Revivedhttp://kuer.org/post/written-secret-behind-iron-curtain-corpse-revived
Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>The fiction work of Soviet era writer Zigizmund Krzhizhanovsky never saw the light of day in his own time. He was known mostly as a theater, music and literally critic, but he also wrote fables and fiction for more than 20 years, none of which appeared in print until 1989. Well, a new volume of that work called "Autobiography of a Corpse" has just come out here in the U.S.Wed, 25 Dec 2013 22:27:00 +0000Alan Cheuse40023 at http://kuer.org'Nasty Piece Of Work' Makes Spy-Turned-PI Work Wellhttp://kuer.org/post/nasty-piece-work-makes-spy-turned-pi-work-well
Alan Cheuse reviews Robert Littell's newest novel of a CIA agent turned private investigator, A Nasty Piece of Work.Thu, 21 Nov 2013 21:29:00 +0000Alan Cheuse38555 at http://kuer.orgA Coming Of Age Story For The (Ice) Ageshttp://kuer.org/post/coming-age-story-ice-ages
Transcript <p>MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.<p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>And I'm Robert Siegel. A new novel explores life on Earth tens of thousands of years ago. It's called "Shaman" by science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. Our reviewer, Alan Cheuse, says it's worthy of a spot on the bookshelf between "The Inheritors" and "The Clan Of The Cave Bear."<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Robinson has chosen a broad and effective means for including everything that he knows and everything he imagines about the world of 30,000 B.C.Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:37:00 +0000Alan Cheuse36559 at http://kuer.orgBook Review: 'Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-love-dishonor-marry-die-cherish-perish
Transcript <p>MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: <p>The writer and humorist David Rakoff died last year at the age of 47 of cancer. He left behind his final work: a brief novel in verse with the long title "Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish." It was published today, and Alan Cheuse has this review.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: This short but abundantly populated novel in verse had quite an effect on me. It's all I can do to write a novel in prose, but a novel in rhyming couplets with a story that keeps my attention and exudes beauty and the suffering attendant upon a human predicament?Wed, 17 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000Alan Cheuse32524 at http://kuer.orgBook Review: 'Skinner'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-skinner
Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.<p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>And I'm Audie Cornish.<p>Charlie Huston is a Los Angeles-based writer known for his superhero comic books and crime novels. Alan Cheuse couldn't wait to get his hands on Huston's latest thriller called "Skinner." Here's his review.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Charlie Huston's 2010 novel "Sleepless" bowled me over. What a powerful combination of combustible plot and fiery language. So here's his new novel in my hands. It's called "Skinner," and it's a huge letdown.Mon, 08 Jul 2013 20:15:00 +0000Alan Cheuse32076 at http://kuer.orgBook Review: 'The Mehlis Report'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-mehlis-report
Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.<p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>And I'm Audie Cornish.<p>Our book reviewer Alan Cheuse is excited to introduce the work of Rabee Jaber. He lives in Lebanon, and his novel "The Mehlis Report" takes place there. In Beirut, the characters await the real Mehlis report, which analyzed the watershed moment in Lebanon, the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: First of all, this novel is a bittersweet love song to Beirut.Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:44:00 +0000Alan Cheuse31764 at http://kuer.orgBook Review: 'Submergence'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-submergence
Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>The writer J.M. Ledgard leads multiple lives. He's a journalist and covers East Africa for the Economist, but Ledgard is also a novelist.Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:38:00 +0000Alan Cheuse27407 at http://kuer.orgBook Review: 'Where Tigers Are At Home'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-where-tigers-are-home
Transcript <p>MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.<p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>And I'm Audie Cornish. Our book reviewer, Alan Cheuse, has just traveled to Brazil and back in an 800-page novel. The book is called "Where Tigers Are At Home." It's by a French novelist named Jean-Marie Blas de Robles and it's just out in English. Here's Alan's review.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: A Frenchman named Von Wogau, a divorced and retired journalist, lives in a small town in the northeastern region of Brazil.Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:39:00 +0000Alan Cheuse26440 at http://kuer.orgUnder Ogawa's Macabre, Metafictional Spellhttp://kuer.org/post/under-ogawas-macabre-metafictional-spell
It used to be a truism among critics of British poetry that Keats and most of his fellow Romantic poets worked in the shadow of John Milton. I'm not making a perfect analogy when I suggest that most contemporary Japanese writers seem to be working under the shadow of Haruki Murakami, but I hope it highlights the spirit of the situation.<p>You certainly get that feeling of being haunted by Murakami when you begin reading the "Eleven Dark Tales," as she calls them, in this story cycle by Yoko Ogawa. The situations seem made for Murakami's particular blend of the real and the fantastic.Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:20:00 +0000Alan Cheuse25180 at http://kuer.orgUnder Ogawa's Macabre, Metafictional SpellA Wintry Mix: Alan Cheuse Selects The Season's Besthttp://kuer.org/post/wintry-mix-alan-cheuse-selects-seasons-best
It's that time of year again — the leaves have fallen, the dark comes early, the air brings with it a certain chill — and I've been piling up books on my reading table, books I've culled from the offerings of the past few months, which because of their essential lyric beauty and power stand as special gifts for you and yours.<p>They sometimes seem at odds, the lyrical impulse and the narrative impulse.Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:48:00 +0000Alan Cheuse22053 at http://kuer.orgA Wintry Mix: Alan Cheuse Selects The Season's BestBook Review: 'Dear Life'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-dear-life
Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.<p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>And I'm Robert Siegel with good news for short story fans.<p>Canadian writer and master of the short story Alice Munro has published a new collection. It's called "Dear Life." And our reviewer Alan Cheuse says it's a must read.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: "Dear Life," dear means precious. It can also mean expensive.Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:40:00 +0000Alan Cheuse21289 at http://kuer.orgA Midcentury Romance, With 'Sunlight' And 'Shadow'http://kuer.org/post/midcentury-romance-sunlight-and-shadow
New York, New York, it's a wonderful town! And Mark Helprin's new near-epic novel makes it all the more marvelous. It's got great polarized motifs — war and peace, heroism and cowardice, crime and civility, pleasure and business, love and hate, bias and acceptance — which the gifted novelist weaves into a grand, old-fashioned romance, a New York love story that begins with a Hollywoodish meet-cute on the Staten Island Ferry.<p>"To be in New York on a beautiful day is to feel razor-close to being in love," Helprin writes.Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:16:00 +0000Alan Cheuse18851 at http://kuer.orgA Midcentury Romance, With 'Sunlight' And 'Shadow'Book Review: 'God Carlos'http://kuer.org/post/book-review-god-carlos
Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.<p>MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: <p>And I'm Melissa Block. Now to the 16th Century and the Spanish port of Cadiz. It's the setting for "God Carlos," a new novel by Jamaican-born writer Anthony Winkler, who takes us on a voyage to the New World.Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:36:00 +0000Alan Cheuse18120 at http://kuer.orgSail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheusehttp://kuer.org/post/sail-summer-novel-picks-alan-cheuse
<strong> </strong>Head to the bookstore or pick up your Nook or Kindle or iPad, and prepare, if you will, to make some decisions about your summer reading life. My suggestions this year tend to be fine new fiction, the kind that not only flows on the page but also makes a sort of music in your mind. So, <em>word</em> <em>music </em>it is! Strike up the orchestra! It's going to be a big summer for big broad American literary voices, voices that leap from the page and linger with you, echo through your summer and perhaps even beyond.Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:23:00 +0000Alan Cheuse13754 at http://kuer.orgSail Into Summer With Novel Picks From Alan Cheuse